Digital Design Experience

Students will bring creative ideas to life through digital art, design, and interactive media. Working primarily on computers and tablets, they’ll explore how images, motion, and interaction shape the ways people experience stories, games, websites, and apps.

Through guided exercises and studio projects, students will be introduced to user experience and interface design (UX/UI), interactive media, motion, and game systems. They’ll develop ideas through research, sketches, digital experiments, and prototypes, learning to connect visual choices with how an audience will understand or use their work.

Students will build confidence with digital workflows while practicing creative problem-solving, testing ideas, and refining their projects through feedback. Throughout the four-week intensive, they’ll explore how digital tools can support their individual interests and open possibilities for further study in art and design.

Fridays will focus on portfolio development. Students will work with faculty and professional artists to refine their projects, document their process, and practice explaining their creative decisions in preparation for future college applications.

What Students Will Create

Students will develop two to three portfolio-ready digital or interactive projects, supported by sketches, experiments, and process documentation. Their collection will demonstrate both their finished work and the thinking, testing, and revision behind it.

Students who choose afternoon electives will be able to expand their digital practice or explore drawing, painting, printmaking, and other hands-on art forms.

Portfolio Development

Friday mornings focus on building a portfolio for college applications. You’ll select and refine your work, practice explaining your creative decisions, and learn how to present your artistic interests and strengths. Faculty feedback will help you identify your strongest pieces and opportunities to develop your work further.

The intensive concludes with a student-curated gallery show for family and friends.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this intensive, students will be able to:

• Describe how images, motion, and interaction influence an audience’s experience of digital work.
• Apply introductory concepts from UX/UI, interactive media, motion, or game systems to guided exercises and projects.
• Develop ideas through research, sketches, digital experiments, and prototypes.
• Use digital tools and workflows to create and refine original projects.
• Test ideas and use feedback to improve how an audience understands or interacts with their work.
• Document their creative process and explain the decisions behind their projects.
• Select, refine, and organize digital or interactive work for a developing portfolio and student gallery show.

What Registration Will Include

This registration will cover the morning intensive only. Afternoon electives and housing will require separate registration.

Students will be able to take this intensive on its own or combine it with afternoon electives for a full-day Summer@Cornish experience. No afternoon elective will be required for students attending mornings only.

How Students Will Build Their Schedules

Full-Time Program
Students will register for this morning intensive and two afternoon electives, one from each schedule. The morning intensive will meet Monday–Friday, 9 a.m.–noon, with a lunch break from noon–1 p.m.

Morning Intensive Only
Students will register for this course and attend Monday–Friday, 9 a.m.–noon.

Morning Intensive + One Afternoon Elective
Students will register for this intensive and one afternoon elective. They’ll attend every morning and stay for the afternoons listed in their elective’s schedule.

Afternoon electives will run from 1–4 p.m. Students who wish to attend every afternoon will choose two electives: one that will meet Monday/Wednesday/Friday and one that will meet Tuesday/Thursday.

Students will be able to deepen their digital practice through related electives or explore interests across disciplines.

Students will need to add each course to their cart separately.

Browse Summer@Cornish courses →

Housing Options

A residential option will be available to full-day students and will include supervised housing, evening and weekend activities, and extra studio time.

Students who plan to stay in housing will need to begin with the residential application before registering for courses. They’ll receive instructions for selecting a morning intensive and two afternoon electives as part of the residential package.

Learn about the residential program and how to apply →

Questions?

Students and families will be able to get help choosing courses and building a schedule by emailing cornishplus@seattleu.edu.